The Worlds Between
by Loki Laufeyson
Summary: In the multiverse, there exists trillions of worlds and possibilities, with the same people, but they are all completely unaware of each other. But what if the circumstances brought the same individuals together? Borrowed concepts from His Dark Materials
1. In a Different World

The multiverse. Such a simple concept, yet so hard to visualize.

Trillions of trillions of parallel universes exist so close to each other, but its inhabitants are completely unaware. They are separated by decisions made by its inhabitants, some small choices, and some history-changing. When that choice is made, the universe will split according to the different consequences. Of course, since these trillions of worlds originated from one world, many of the people living in them are the same….

* * *

><p>"Cops and robbers! Let's play cops and robbers!"<p>

The little girl's voice rang out in the dark forest as she ran across the leaf-covered ground. She jumped over knotted roots and dodged the branches like a seasoned athlete. Closely following her was a red cardinal, his feathers a few shades brighter than her shorn hair. She stooped down to grab a chunk of wood that vaguely resembled a pistol and hid behind a fallen tree trunk. The cardinal landed on her shoulder, then abruptly changed his shape into a weasel.

"You think he's gonna get us this time, Pol?" the girl whispered to the small furry form.

"The cops always win, that's what Mr. Root always says," the weasel, Polethim, her dæmon, the physical manifestation of her soul, whispered back.

The girl grinned with confidence and peaked out of the top of the log to look for her friend. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small figure slowly walk through the trees, careful to avoid the branches that stuck out. Behind him, a blue jay flitted through the foliage.

"Hooooolly. Hol-ly!" the boy called, looking through the forest for the girl. He peered through the fading light of sunset.

She smiled briefly, and then put on her father's 'serious policeman' face. She positioned her fingers on the wood like her father showed her. Squaring her shoulders, she stood up, extending her arms to its full length, and shouted, "Stop, felon!"

But there was no one there.

Holly frowned. She looked around the woods and while pointing her weapon at the exact spot the boy was a second before. Polethim changed into a lynx and hissed in confusion, scanning the shadows of the trees with his keen eyes. They waited in the orange sunlight, when…there! The slightest movement in the bush! The girl and her dæmon crept slowly as silent and agile as ninjas. The bush shook ominously. When they were almost right next to the shrub, Holly whacked the leaves as hard as she could with her wooden firearm.

A strangled yowl erupted from the bush and Polethim darted into the leaves. For one second, the girl and the dæmon looked almost savage when they pummeled the poor plant. But the only thing the bush yielded was a fox that scampered away.

Holly was starting to get pretty mad. She knew her friend was cunning, but the fact that he tricked her twice in one day, and uncountable times before, was starting to bug her something fierce. She started to trudge up back to her hiding place to search for him again.

Suddenly, a big black form tackled the unaware Polethim, knocking the breath out of Holly. The panther, a dæmon, pinned the lynx to the ground. Polethim responded by turning into a tiger, and they growled at while they circled each other. Holly was so caught up worrying about Pol that she didn't notice the grinning boy who was tiptoeing right behind her.

He pounced on her, and they started to wrestle on the forest floor, next to their squabbling dæmons. Holly struggled blindly for a while, until she remembered some of her self defense training. She placed a couple well-placed punches and immediately got the upper hand. In no time, he was flailing. She landed a couple more punches and the desperate flailing turned into wheezing. She started to laugh; he never could fight for his life. Her joy was infectious and the boy started to laugh, too. Their dæmons took one more playful swipe at each other and changed their forms. The marten-shaped Polethim greeted the raccoon dæmon like old friends, which, of course, they were. The boy sat up and smiled at the girl, his blue eyes gleamed in the dim sunlight and his black hair ruffled by the breeze. Holly sat up and smiled back at her best friend, Artemis Fowl the Second.

It was one of those rare moments that Holly Short would look back at in the future, where she would remember exactly what she thought, what she saw, and how she felt. She was completely content, wishing forever that she could stay in an eternal forest and play childish games with her best friend. She wished that their families where not complete opposites, one criminal and one lawful, one highborn and the other lower-class. But most of all, she wished that they would not have to grow up and their dæmons did not have to give up shape-shifting and settle on one form.

But, like the child she was, she forgot her musings as soon as he spoke.

"It is getting rather late," he murmured as he examined his chronometer that he pulled from his aristocratic coat pocket. "Father will be displeased."

Holly squinted at the setting sun. Another thing she wished was that there was no such thing as time. "You dad gets displeased over everything. Anyways wouldn't he be mad already since you tricked Butler?"

Artemis frowned. "Not so much tricking him as ordering him away. He is supposed to follow my every order. Besides, he knew I was getting bored and I would have found a way to escape from that infernal party." His parents had hosted a celebration of sorts over his father's newly established trade routes to Muscovy. "And yes, I suppose he would be considerably angry already."

_Ah, this talk again,_ Holly thought disdainfully. Every time they played, he would return home out of fear of his father instead of the actual wanting to be at home. She decided to voice an idea that has been stewing in her mind for a while instead of saying the usual good-byes.

"So why don't we just run away?"

Artemis was shocked and turned to look at Holly. She was at ease as she stared at the sun and acted as if the suggestion was completely natural. Polethim was relaxed and rested his head on her leg. His own dæmon, Shirkissa, licked her paws and stared at him ambivalently.

"And how do you suppose we live? On the street?"

"No…we can sell that coat of yours," she teased, glancing at the thick fur that lined the edges and the golden fastenings. The Fowl family crest was emblazoned on the breast pocket and it reached down to his knees when he stood up. Not that he was very tall in the first place, being ten years old. "I bet it could feed a small village for a year!"

"It is not that expensive!"

"Says you," Holly replied. Artemis stuck out his tongue out at her.

"I still think we would not survive on the street. First, where would we stay?"

"In this forest, of course! My dad taught me how to hunt last week!"

"And what would we do all day, when we aren't looking for food?"

"Play, of course! Arty, for a genius, you can be pretty dumb."

"Ah, of course. Silly me…"

She paused. "So you think it's a good idea?"

He thought about it. "Yeah. I don't care if I never come back."

Holly peeked at him out of her peripherals. His voice was bitter and his face was twisted into an expression that looked like anger and a little fear. She noticed that Shirkissa had turned into a snake and wrapped herself around Artemis's neck. Not for the first time, she wondered what went on in the Fowl household to make him act like that.

"Well, if you never want to go back, you know you can live at my house anytime, right?" she said slowly.

He smiled faintly. "Yeah. Thanks, Holly." She beamed back.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Holly folded her arms behind her head and laid down next to him. Her eyes half closed, feeling the sun on her face, the security of a friendly presence. At that moment, the world was perfect and nothing could possibly interrupt the peace she felt right then. She felt her eyes droop even lower and Polethim snuggle into her side. Just a little nap and then they could return back to the real world….


	2. The Catalyst

Artemis woke up with a jolt. The first thing he registered was that the forest was substantially darker than it was before. Shadows covered the dirt ground and the moonlight casted an eerie glow to it, which made him shiver involuntarily. It was no longer the cheerful playground of a few hours ago; the silence made it appear like it was demanding respect.

Shirkissa turned into a horned owl and flew up to one the branches overhead. Artemis looked around him and saw Holly sleeping, her dæmon curled into her abdomen. He crawled over and gently shook her.

"Holly, wake up."

She groaned and turned over. As a result, she jerked her arm and it smacked Artemis full in the face. She emitted something that sounded vaguely like a giggle. He groaned; even in her sleep she could harm him.

"Holly, I'm serious. Wake up, please."

Her eyes opened slowly and Polethim stood up to shake his fur. She sat up and appeared to be surprised that it was suddenly night time. "Whoa. How long were we asleep?"

He pulled out his gold chronometer. It was too dark to see the face, so Shirkissa read it for him. "Half past twelve," she said. "So, five hours."

He felt a chill go down his spine. It was not his first time being late, but his father's anger was something to be feared when he thought his son put fun and games before the family reputation. And he has never been this late before.

"I have to get home now! Father will kill me!" he hissed, picking himself up and dusting the leaves off of his coat.

"Alright, then," Holly said. "But you're not serious about the killing part, are you?"

He regarded that for a while. He was his son. It would be ridiculous if his father killed him over curfew. "No, of course not," he replied.

But Shirkissa knew her human, and saw that he was unsure. Her yellow eyes watched him.

"Okay. But remember what I said about my house," Holly said, staring at her friend's face. She suspected something about him, too. But she did not confront him about it. She stood up, not bothering to brush the leaves from her clothing, and set off running. Polethim turned into a hare and followed her. For one moment, she looked over her shoulder at her friend. He was in the same position as before and the image looked a little foreboding to her. But she shook the feeling off. She briefly waved at him, and then ran off in the direction of her house.

Artemis stood there for a while, looking at the retreating form of his friend. He could hear her joking around with her dæmon while they laughed and chased each other. He sighed.

"Are you ready?" Shirkissa asked as she flew down to perch on his shoulder.

"Yes," he answered as he set off for the direction of his family estate, the opposite direction of Holly's path.

The Fowl family was one of the most powerful families in Eireland, their trade routes and contacts reaching from Africa and Brytain to Corea and Nippon. Everyone in Europe knew of their history and deeds, or rather, misdeeds. It was rumored that even the panserbjørne, the fearsome armored bears of the North, respected the lord. Being so powerful meant that they had many enemies, but they had the Church on their side, and that made them almost untouchable. Currently, there was just a nuclear family that composed the Fowls with one child. That child was Artemis the Second, the sole heir of an enormous fortune.

He reached the outskirts of the family land and saw the looming castle that was centuries old, built on top of a hill for ancient military defensive maneuvers. He saw the guards with naphtha lamps patrolling the grounds. He quickly hid in one of the hedges his mother planted to add more life to the front yard, while Shirkissa turned into a stoat. It was the same hedges his father said could hide potential assassins. He noticed that the guards appeared to be more active than usual, their dog dæmons barking and pacing in agitation. A gravelly voice confirmed his suspicions.

"Find him. Dispatch some people to city." The voice of Butler, his personal bodyguard and manservant, floated to him. They were looking for him.

Artemis peeked out of the leaves and looked at the house. On the porch, his mother sat on one of the chairs placed there. He could make out her lemur dæmon clutching her shoulder as she wrung her hands. Not far away, his father paced back and forth and seemed to be gesturing angrily to Butler.

"Best to get it over with," Shirkissa spoke softly into his ear.

He nodded in agreement, steeled himself, and crawled out of the bush. His dæmon turned into snake, the most expressionless of her forms. When the glow of the lamps reached him, the guards noticed him immediately. Butler confronted him just as fast.

"Where were you, Master Artemis?" Butler asked, almost irately. His grizzly bear dæmon bared her teeth a little. Shirkissa flicked her tongue in response.

"Just playing with some friends," Artemis replied in monotone. His father heard that.

"It was probably that girl from the slums," His father, Lord Fowl, sneered.

Artemis felt his face heat up and his fingers twitched. "Just because her parents does not attend your parties does not mean that they are poor."

Lord Fowl glowered at his son. The cobra dæmon that rested lightly on his shoulders flared her hood briefly. "Boy, do not speak back to me. You've wasted your time enough this day as it is. Follow me to my office." With that, he turned his heel and strode into the house.

Artemis stood there for a while, contemplating whether or not to take up Holly's offer. He saw Butler look at him suspiciously out of the corner of his eye before he left. His mother walked next to him and hugged him. The lemur dæmon stroked Shirkissa's head. He relaxed a little in her embrace. Lady Fowl's brow puckered a little.

"Don't worry, Artemis, your father was just very worried about you. Everyone was."

"That's very hard to believe," Artemis mumbled into his mother's evening gown. She did not change out of her party attire when she had heard her son was missing.

She said, "He just has different ways of showing his concern. Now go, he waits for you." She released him from the hug and gently nudged him to the house entrance hall. He hesitated for a while, and then walked to his father's office.

When he arrived, his father was seated behind the large oak desk in a leather chair. The dimmed anbaric lights casted everything in a golden glow, but it did not look comforting to Artemis. He sat in a chair across from his father, a chair that once seated his father's many 'business partners'. It felt strange, like he was being convicted by a court. Except it was just one man, albeit a very intimidating man.

"So," Lord Fowl grumbled as his eyes, the same color as his son's, glinted in the light. "You believe that playing games between a couple trees with a beggar child is more important than upholding your family's reputation?"

Artemis felt the blood rush to his face again and he could not keep his response back. He glared at his hands. "No, but sometimes I believe that 'beggar child' is better than you will ever be, even on your best day."

Since he was looking at his hands, he did not notice his father's face suddenly turn paper white. He did not see his father's lips thin. He did not see the cobra dæmon bear her teeth. He certainly did not see his father pull back his hand and hit his face with a resounding smack.

He cringed into the chair, his eyes welling with unshed tears, and then he blinked and his eyes narrowed with hatred, the watery blue hardening into steel cobalt. He bolted out of the office, out of the house. And since he left so quickly, he did not see his father's face contort regret.

* * *

><p>Holly ran past the familiar alleys and streets, completely at ease next to the dark houses. Even though the smell that came out of who-knows-where was sometimes horrendous, it was still her home territory, and she reveled in it. Most of the time.<p>

"Eww, what the heck happened to the sewers this time?" Polethim turned into a cardinal to escape the stench. Holly was not so lucky. She hid her nose in her grubby shirt while trying to search for the way to her home.

"I dunno, Pol. How 'bout I throw you down there and you can find out?" She replied irritably. She was pretty jealous of his current no-sense-of-smell state.

"I reckon you love me too much to actually do that," he said smugly to her. She tried really hard not to smile, but failed. She did treasure her dæmon too much to carry out her threat. Though there was a time when she did fall down the sewer, with Trouble Kelp, one of the street kids. He did not dare play with her again for a couple weeks.

She finally reached the little corner right by the wharf where a cluster of homes stood. Even though her family had two working parents, (though one job was more of a hobby, really) their salary was not all that great. But she was as happy as she could be when she gazed upon the small, cluttered, house with bright flowers planted all around it. She would not exchange it for anything else. Then a couple shingles slid off the roof and hit a nearby tree. One of the branches broke right off and the sound of splitting wood echoed into the night. Holly smirked. _Well, maybe not anything._

She saw one of the curtains pull back and her father's face peek through the grimy window to search for the disturbance. His German shepherd dæmon joined him, her eyes sweeping the lawn for suspicious activity. Instead, they spotted his daughter standing in the front lawn and his face turned into relief as it disappeared from the window. Holly heard a bunch of thudding from within the house as her father attempted to move quickly. The door flew open with a final bang and Mr. Short emerged in all his citizen-on-patrol glory.

"Holly," he said, smiling, wrapping her in his arms. "I'd thought this was one of the days that you fell asleep in the forest again."

"Yeah I did, for a little while. But then Arty woke me up. Or else I would've slept the whole night."

Mr. Short frowned. 'Arty' was that boy from the crime lord family, wasn't he? "That's good…I suppose. But please be more careful, honey, I don't want to owe any favors to those bluebloods…"

Holly grimaced at the term. "Dad, he's nothing like that. And he probably can't protect me from a couple rats."

"Fine, go in and get into bed. I let you run around wild too much. You'll probably turn feral when you grown up." She pouted in response. He poked her in the stomach, which caused her giggle and punch her father back. "Oh, and before you go, tell your mother goodnight."

Her mother! She had forgotten. Holly ran out to the backyard, which was basically a miniature dock that led out to the ocean. She saw the bed that was placed right on the dock and the figure that was swathed in blankets. She launched herself upon her parents' bed and was greeted by her mother's groaning. The dolphin dæmon that was resting beneath in the water flipped his tail and splashed water on them, expelling water through his blowhole in amusement.

Mrs. Short was one of those people that loved the ocean so much that their dæmons settled into the form of a marine animal. She first fell in love with the sea when she was a teenager, riding on fishermen and gyptians' boats while admiring the different ocean animals that followed its wake. It meant that she could never that she could never leave the ocean behind, so when she met Mr. Short, they decided to build a house right next to the waterside.

"Hello, sweetie. Did you have a nice time?" Mrs. Short looked at her daughter squirming in her bed and noticed that there were leaves and dirt smudges on her clothing. "You went to the forest again?"

"Yes, Mum. Arty and I played games all day, then we played cops and robbers, then we fell asleep. I came to say goodnight," Holly paused, then beamed at her mother. "Well, goodnight!"

"Good night, Holly." She smiled at her daughter then groaned again when she saw the bed sheets smeared with dirt.

Had Holly known at that moment that it was potentially the last time she would see her parents, she would have prepared a speech a sorts. Maybe share a couple happy memories from the past. Hell, she might as well throw a party.

But she had no idea, so she just went into her homey, box-cluttered home.

She reached her room, the only bedroom in the house, and collapsed onto her bed. The moonlight filtered in through the window. She gazed at the ceiling for a while, completely content. Polethim curled next to her in his marten form, pressing himself to her for warmth. She felt both of their hearts beating in time with each other. She smiled, her eyelids drooping. Just to live like this every day, it would be paradise. _Like the legend of Peter Pan_, she thought drowsily. She was awfully close to passing out…

Then there was an urgent rapping on the window that woke her right up.


	3. Nighttime Nomadic Neighbor

Holly screamed, rolled off her bed and hit the ground face first. Polethim launched into the air his howler monkey form, bellowing simultaneously.

Mr. Short barged into his daughter's room with his pistol drawn, his eyes wild and his dæmon barking fiercely. He saw the girl and the monkey yelling on the ground together and, out of the corner of his eye, a shadow duck from the window. He walked briskly to it, his pistol gleaming in the glow of the moon. He stood right next to the window with his back to the wall. He caught his daughter's eye and put his finger to his lips. Holly immediately quieted herself, her eyes wide as she clutched Polethim and hid behind one of the stacks of boxes that crowded the house. Her father was in cop-mode right now.

Mr. Short squared his shoulders, took a deep breath and adjusted the grip on his pistol. With a fluid movement, he stuck his arms out of the window and pointed it…

Right into the face of an extremely hairy man.

He was a middle aged guy with a very thick head of hair and an even thicker beard. He was a little short and sturdy in nature. His clothes consisted of a torn shirt, a heavy overcoat, baggy trousers, holey boots, and a pair of fingerless gloves. He looked and smelled like he hadn't washed in years. He held his dæmon, a mud brown mole, in the crook of his arm. He was the epitome of homelessness.

"You again!" Mr. Short groaned. "What are you doing here in the middle of night, scaring us half to death?"

"Ah, my good, one-time neighbor! I was wondering if there is any…ah…money left for me this time?" The man attempted to look charming by flashing his chipped and somewhat large teeth in what looked like a disgusting version of a smile. Holly looked around the corner of the boxes and saw his display.

Holly snapped, "Who are you?" She did not appreciate being interrupted from her bed and stared reproachingly at him.

The hairy man started, as if he did not notice her until she spoke up. "Ah, so this is the precious Holly I've been hearing about! She wasn't here, say…ten years ago when you last arrested me!"

"Yes, back then when you didn't even bother to 'ask' for money," Mr. Short seethed. "Honey, this is Mr. Mulch Diggums, kleptomaniac and hobo extraordinaire."

Mr. Diggums looked a little hurt. "Come now, I didn't visit here just for money. I actually came to tell you something I've stumbled upon in the forest. You know, the one on the way Fowl Castle? It's real sketchy, makes me a little nervous just looking at it. Kind of unnatural. And I'm asking you because I actually trust you, not like that scary woman Vinyáya or ol' Root. Plus, they don't know me anything except as a convict."

Mr. Short sighed. "Alright Diggums you lead the way. And don't try any funny business." Mulch Diggums did his 'garbage' grin again, as Holly dubbed it in her mind, and set off into the night.

"Dad, why do trust him so much?" Holly asked. Her father was not the person to go following homeless people at night.

"Because I learned in the past that even though Mr. Diggums is a lowlife, a lot of the things he even cares to mention to other people are… important or unique in some way. I guess you can say he has the eye of a thief."

She glanced up at her father. He looked a little worried, which made her kind of nervous. Her father was never worried, not even when she disappeared in the forest for hours on end sometimes. "What's wrong, Dad?"

He glanced down at her almost absentmindedly, his hazel eyes, the eyes Holly had, looked glazed over. His dæmon stood in a trance, as if trying to remember something. He said, "It's nothing. Holly, was this the forest you played in with your friend this evening?"

Holly thought about it. The forest was pretty near to her Artemis's ancestral home. "Yeah, I think so."

His frown deepened."Did you notice anything…off? Like maybe a patch of different colored dirt? Or maybe a breeze that came out of nowhere? A weird smell?"

She was even more confused. Patches of discolored ground? She did not see anything like that. As for the breeze, Artemis's hair did move at a very odd time after their game of cops and robbers…

"Come on! I don't got all night!" Mr. Diggums yelled from the street.

Mr. Short looked up and started towards the door. Holly stood up. He managed a small smile when he looked down at her. "I suppose you want to follow, eh?" She nodded enthusiastically. "You're too much like your mother, always searching for some kind of adventure," he chuckled.

Father and daughter followed the man down the dirt road as he held a naphtha lamp up. Holly heard him arguing with his dæmon on where to go.

"Not there, Mulch! I'm pretty sure the boulder was not at the turn-off!"

"What? This road leads to the Fowl Castle! Where else would the forest be?"

"Over there! That way's just a shortcut made for their convenience. I remember it being in the smack in the middle of the forest, right at the thickest part."

"Eh? I'm pretty sure that's not it. Beside you were in my coat the whole time, how could've you known where it was?"

"I was watching the ground."

"Now how would that help anything?"

"Are you asking a mole why the ground is not helpful?"

"Maka, you're not even a real mole."

"Mulch, do you know where you are going?" Mr. Short sighed.

"No fear, my friend! I will lead you straight to it! As soon as I find that weird tree again…"

Mr. Short groaned dramatically. He looked as his daughter. "Why don't you show us where the middle forest is? You spend so much time in there; you practically got the place memorized."

_Finally_, thought Holly, rolling her eyes at the back of Mr. Diggums. She strode confidently into the thicket as Polethim turned into a lynx to pierce the darkness with his cat eyes. Her father followed closely behind her, just as confident.

"Hey hey hey, where you going?" Mr. Diggums yelled as he jogged to catch up.

"Diggums, it's obvious that you're more lost than an armored bear on a tropical island. My daughter, on the other hand, plays a lot in this place, not to mention has my fantastic genes, so she would know exactly where to lead us." Mr. Short replied.

Mr. Diggums grumbled a little about being led into a forest by a little girl at the dead of night, but he followed anyway.

They trekked on for about five minutes when Holly suddenly stopped. "Here it is, the thickest part. This is where me and Arty play hide and seek."

"Yes, this is the spot! Quite the girl you have there. But, of course, I knew where it was, too," Mulch said smugly. "Now, where's my reward?"

"Reward?" Mr. Short murmured, his eyes sweeping the place thoroughly as only a policeman can. "I'll give you a reward."

He took the naphtha lamp from Mr. Diggums's hand and seemed to draw back his arm as if to reach for something. The dirty man was still grinning. So he was not expecting Mr. Short to punch him in the jaw.

The shorter man fell to the ground, gripping his dæmon protectively. He groaned then looked up at the policeman. "Ow, what the hell did you do that for?"

Holly's father seemed to think about it for a while. "Because, we had to rely on my kid daughter to find something 'unnatural' in the forest since you couldn't even memorize your directions. Besides, I've been wanting to do that since…how long's it been?...ten years." He paused to take a breath. "And it's your fault I'm living in a dingy shack."

"Hey! It's not my fault you have bad house building skills!"

"I'm talking about not having enough money for supplies to build a bigger house, you idiot!"

Holly was quickly getting bored of the conversation about issues that was older than she was. Whoever the homeless man was, she could tell her father was no fan. By the way he talks and acts, Mr. Root and Ms. Vinyáya probably wouldn't like him much either. She sat on a cold rock next to Polethim. He rested his head against her leg.

"You think there's actually anything special here, Pol?" She whispered to him.

"I dunno," he replied. "Just keep your eyes open."

She kept her eyes open for anything weird. But she was getting really sleepy and the warmth of Polethim's body felt really nice. She lethargically watched the adult's squabbling slowly move them away from her seat on the rock. Right when she was on the edge of unconsciousness, a vaguely familiar black shape leaped upon her dæmon and a pale hand extended from the shadows behind her and closed around her mouth.


	4. Square of Leaves

She really needed to stop being scared the crap out of at night.

For the second time that evening, Holly screamed, but it was muffled this time, and the adults were already too far away to hear her strangled cries. Another arm wrapped around her middle and pulled her off the rock. She could hear Polethim grappling with the unknown person's dæmon.

Hearing her own dæmon struggle made her fight back. She released a powerful punch aimed at the general face area. It connected with something solid with a satisfying crack. Then she bit the hand that was still on her mouth. The person yelped and drew back immediately. The panther dæmon growled sharply.

"Ouch, Holly, that hurt!" said the figure.

Holly's eyes widened. She would recognize that voice anywhere. "Arty, what are you doing here?" she whispered.

"I ran away, obviously," he hissed back. "I couldn't go to your house because I knew that Father would search for me there first. I just did not expect _you_ to be here!"

She noticed that he did not look so good, and it was not just because of her blows. He clutched his nose with his good hand while the other hand had a half circle of teeth marks. A stream of blood was oozing from between his fingers. His eyes were bloodshot and one cheek was bright red. His hair was mussed and his loafers were badly scuffed.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"Most recently, you broke my nose." Holly attempted to look apologetic. He ignored it. "Then, I decided that I don't really need my family. So I ran when I could. My mother tripped over her heels when she tried to catch me and I told Butler to take care of her so he wouldn't chase me. I think the guards were too surprised to do anything. Holly, you were serious about living in the forest with me, right?" He looked a little apprehensive.

"Of course I was," she said with utter confidence. "But listen." She dropped her voice lower as they huddled behind the rock. "My dad and this hairy hobo are looking for something weird in the forest. They say its 'unnatural'. Do you know anything about that?"

Artemis had a faraway look on his face, as if he was trying to remember something from long ago. "Yes…a couple years ago a few agents from the Church began coming over to talk to Father about something. They said it was in the forest, and it was… some kind window, but they never told him exactly where it was. They said this window was really important that they would send some of their experimental theologians there. They were investigating something called Dust."

Holly was puzzled. "What, dust? They can investigate that at home."

"No, not normal dust! This Dust is really special, something to do with the human conscious and how we achieved self-awareness. It was also a couple years back that they had a facility in Bolvangar that experimented on Dust, but they had the wrong ideals at the time. Gyptians went there and sabotaged it. It was also rumored the panserbjørne king and a witch queen was there."

"Helping the gyptians?"

"Yes," Artemis said, continuing on his history lecture, pausing just to wipe the dribbling blood. "They say at Bolvangar, they kidnapped kids to cut away their dæmons." He clenched his jaw and the panther Shirkissa snarled. Polethim turned into a weasel and hid in Holly's clothing as she stared wide eyed at her friend.

"C-cut? Why?" Holly stammered. The idea was too horrid.

"They thought Dust was evil. The Church said it was original sin, and that was just the excuse the theologians needed to satisfy their… curiosity. Anyway, Dust is related to these windows somehow. They flow freely in and out of the windows, like they are alive." His voice lowered. "I think they are not only connected to human consciousness, but also conscious of things they do. And apparently they are attracted to adults. That's why their dæmons do not change."

"How do you know all this?" whispered Holly.

"I sneak into my father's conference room when they come over. There's a vent in the wall near the ground that opens, and I lay in there when they talk. And I've been conducting experiments myself. I found the window and throw things in there, but sometimes they disappear when I come back."

She caught Polethim's eye. He was impassive. "Can I see the window?"

"This way." Artemis stood up and walked in the opposite way of where Mr. Diggums and her father had disappeared. Shirkissa sauntered after him and Polethim joined her in his tiger form.

They trekked for a while, stepping carefully over the undergrowth, their dæmons guiding them with their keen cat eyes. He stopped when they reached a clearing.

It seemed so innocent; it was small, ferns and wildflowers growing on the borders of it. The moon shown overhead, casting everything in a silvery glow. But there was something very… odd. Only one side of the clearing's plants was waving to a wind. The other side, the one where Holly and Artemis stood, was still. There was no wind.

"It's right there," he said softly, breaking the silence. He pointed the empty space in the middle. "But you can't see it from this side."

Holly walked slowly around, sticking the outer edges. She felt her hair get tousled by a breeze that was not there before. And then she saw it.

It seemed like someone had cut and removed a section from the air. It was a three feet tall and two feet wide. Inside the square, there were dead leaves littered around a dirt floor instead of the green grass of the meadow they were currently standing on. When she moved a little to the right or left, the leaves disappeared. Just like Mr. Diggums said, it was unnatural. It made hairs on Polethim's back stand up on their ends. It was an entrance to a completely other world.

There was no doubt about this. She knew this as she knew that she could not see in the dark and Polethim was her dæmon. It was just common knowledge; something that every person should know and those who did not would learn instantly.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Artemis murmured as he inspected the window. Then Holly decided to stick her hand in.

"No, wait!" he screeched, grabbing her arm and yanking it back. He did it with so much force that they both fell onto the ground. Holly was mildly surprised that he had the strength to do that. The dæmons eyed each other warily. She looked at him with irritation and said, "What did you do that for?"

"Because it can be dangerous! You do not know what is on the other side. There can be a completely different society or a harmful ecosystem. Or maybe a land full of savages or vicious creatures!"

"Arty, relax! If there were any vicious creatures, they would have walked through by now. You've been hanging around here and nothing's tried to kill you yet, hmm?"

"But," protested Artemis, and then he hesitated. He never got to finish his sentence.

There was an enormous commotion to the left of where they were sitting. It sounded like the men shouting and dogs barking. Branches cracked and light glimmered in the direction the people were. The children turned their heads sharply towards the sound.

"The guards!" Artemis muttered furiously. He stood up and looked around the clearing for a place to escape. The guards were approaching fast.

There was no way out. They could not outrun trained mercenaries. Moving around in the brush would give them away. He looked at the window and started to walk briskly to it.

"Wait, Arty, where are you going?" Holly demanded. Polethim and Shirkissa stood side by side, glaring at the direction of the incoming men.

"We are going through there," Artemis explained as he gestured at the window. "I have no desire of being caught by my father and forced back into a boring life. There is nowhere else to go. I thought you wanted an adventure, right?"

"Right," she said, grinning, with no hesitation in her mind. She moved to stand next to him. Their dæmons turned into their cardinal and blue jay forms and perched on their respective humans' shoulders. They took one last look at their home world and, somewhere in the back of their minds, knew that it would be a long time before they got to see these woods again. With that, the children stepped through the window and disappeared from the land they were born and raised in.

* * *

><p>The hired soldiers marched through the woods, their dog dæmons sniffing and barking. Lord Fowl led the group, closely shadowed by his and Arty's Butlers, and wearing his usual scowl. The cobra dæmon lowered her head so she could speak in his ear.<p>

"Why are you so certain that he is in the forest?"

"Because he would not go to the girl's house. He knows that would probably be the first place we would search. But, like any person, he would run to an area that he is familiar with. The forest would be a good place to pick, since it's so large and there are many hiding places."

Her tongue flickered in the manner he knew was her way of expressing agreement.

"If you do not find the boy tonight, I will cut each and every one of your paychecks in half!" he announced.

The guards' dæmons howled into the night in dismay. The Butlers' bear dæmons twitched their claws. The whole company's pace sped up. Lord Fowl smiled in satisfaction.

They took no notice of the small clearing nearby with the trees waving strangely to a nonexistent breeze as they trampled wildflowers underneath their boots.


	5. Soulless and Miniature

Unfortunately for Artemis, the window was a foot off the ground.

He had proceeded to step through, hoping to look heroic and dramatic for Holly. Instead, he fell down. She landed lithely next to him and snorted, but it was an amused sound.

"Barely a second into a new world and already managed to hurt myself," Artemis grumbled as he inspected his scraped palms.

"Don't worry, you had it coming," snickered Holly. She ignored the dirty look he threw at her and inspected their surroundings.

They were in a forest again, but instead of blooming flowers and green leaves, it looked like it was the beginning of winter. The leaves crunched under their feet as the empty branches waved in the wind. Artemis drew his coat around him. The wind seemed harsher here than it was in his world. He looked behind him and saw a patch of grass amidst the leaves.

"Where to, Arty?" Holly said expectantly.

He thought about it for a while. "We get out of this forest and go to the nearest town. We look for clues what this world is like and then we decide our course of action."

She nodded and took one step forward. And then froze.

Right in front of them, a human figure materialized out the thin air. It was covered in a black, high-tech looking jumpsuit and it wore a matching helmet that gave away nothing about its face. Dragonfly-looking wings jutted out from the back and a series of gadgets were clipped to it belt. The frame holding all this technology was three feet tall, a full head shorter than Artemis and Holly. But that was not even the scariest part.

The scariest part was that the humanoid being was clearly sentient and alive, and it had no dæmon.

Polethim and Shirkissa hissed, their forms briefly flickering in shock and fear. They backed up until their backs were pressed against the children's legs. Holly's face was twisted with horror. Artemis's face was curiously blank.

The figure approached them slowly, its hand straying to its hip where the tiny gun rested, the other one reaching out a little toward them. In response, they took a step back. Polethim shifted into a mongoose, the form he took when Holly felt threatened, jumped into her arms and bared his teeth at the stranger. Shirkissa turned into a snake and Artemis stooped down to scoop her up and place her around his neck.

The person froze in place with its hand still outstretched. Quickly, it drew its weapon and pointed towards them. Polethim shrieked hysterically back with spittle flying from his mouth. Holly clutched his fur so hard that her knuckles were white while Artemis and Shirkissa stared back expressionless.

"Who are you?" A monotone voice came from the little person's helmet.

"You tell me," Holly snapped back childishly. Her friend shot her a warning glance. She stuck out her tongue at him.

Suddenly, the visor of the helmet retracted with a hiss, showing a nut brown face. The person's nose was hooked and it had one large, hazel eye that looked exactly the same as Holly's. The other one, oddly, looked like Artemis's. The mismatched eyes focused on the children's and the stranger spoke in a voice that was very hypnotic and soothing.

"_You will tell me who you are and where you came from_," the voice said, distinctly feminine. The sound was beautiful. The cadence was beautiful. Hell, the eyes were beautiful. Artemis vaguely realized that it was a woman. Holly could not resist answering.

"I'm Holly Short and this is Polethim," she said as she held up her dæmon. He rested in her hands languidly, eyes half closed. "I'm from another world."

The woman flinched, as if what Holly said had personally offended her. She shifted her gun to Artemis and said to him in the same voice, "_And you, who are you and where did you come from?_"

He was not as mentally weak willed as his friend. His brow furrowed as he resisted the urge to answer her question and a vein popped up on his temple. Blue light surrounded his head. The woman frowned, and pushed her voice even more. "_Who are you?"_

His body spoke without his permission. "I am Artemis Fowl the Second and this is Shirkissa."

The miniature woman stood very still. Then she said "_You two can sleep now_."

The two children collapsed onto the leaf-covered ground in their slumber, their dæmons curled up on their arms.

* * *

><p>Captain Holly Short stared at the two napping children for a while. <em>How is this possible?<em>

Sure, the People knew some things about time traveling, but crossing universes? She was pretty sure the Book did not mention anything about parallel worlds.

But the resemblance was undeniable; the boy looked exactly like a younger version of the Artemis she knew, almost like the one she had seen when they both traveled back into time, except his face was bruised and covered with blood. His nose is probably broken. The girl looked a lot like what she did when she was a child, except not that tall, of course, and her skin was not that fair.

The shape shifting animals they called 'dæmons' were dozing on their chests, wrapped in their arms. Her Gift of Tongues allowed her noticed the root of their names. _Polemistis_, Greek for 'warrior'. _Shikari_, 'hunter' in Persian.

She reached down and rested her hand on the boy's shoulder and whispered, "Heal." The blue sparks sprang from her fingers and wiped his face clean of wounds. Without the leaking blood bothering her, she inspected the children more closely.

Their clothes were really weird. It looked like the type of clothing you would see people wear in a movie about dragon-slaying and epic heroes of a land whose name was hard to pronounce. The boy had on really fancy clothes; a gray silk vest on with golden buttons, black pants with fancy tassels and golden chains and a big, draping overcoat. Holly was pretty sure the fur lining on the coat came from real animals and embellishments were made of real, solid gold. It had a family coat of arms stitched on it with the name 'Fowl' right underneath with loopy lettering. On the other hand, the girl's clothing consisted of a brown knee-length skirt and a green tunic that was pretty grimy and blotched with dirt. It looked like the hand-me-down type, complete with patched pockets and dull coloring. The perfect contrast between the privileged and the impoverished.

She snorted. Of course, even in another world, Artemis Fowl would be rich.

"Do you believe their story?" She asked into her helmet.

"It would explain why so much weird things were popping up in the forest. From all the evidence we obtained, their story would fit in perfectly." Foaly answered from his technical booth Haven.

Over a couple weeks, strange objects would randomly appear around this area. She would spot them when she was flying over the forest to go complete the Ritual or go on missions. It was sometimes fruit that did not grow in the forest, like oranges and a banana. But then the objects started getting weirder and she picked those up. So far she had a gold coin, with the word 'Magisterium' engraved on one side and the likenesses of different animals on the other. It looked like the coins used by Mud Men in the Middle Ages, but it looked brand new. There was a small, silver hourglass with an ornate 'F' carved on the top and bottom. She knew what it stood for now. The most recent thing Holly found was a spherical astrolabe that should be fairly old, but it was polished and void of any blemishes.

The LEP decided to monitor the area and found more suspicious things. Animals not native to the forest began to appear at random intervals. Foaly scanned the area and found small amounts of magic present in one specific area. It flowed in a strange stream formation there, but when he sent a Retrieval team there, they found nothing visible.

"Bring the kids down here and we'll question them. They might be connected to Koboi somehow," Foaly said worriedly. "She's known to use people for her own gain."

Over the past few months, the LEP had been trying to track down then Opal Koboi of the past before she did anything really crazy. So far, they just had occasional sightings. They were on alert for anything out of the ordinary and old-fashioned things that were in perfect condition that appeared randomly in the forest was one of them. They had been observing this forest for a while. At first, they thought she was somehow time traveling, but now that theory was unlikely.

Holly nodded even though Foaly could not see it. She clipped the children to her Moonbelt, careful to not touch their dæmons while making sure they were secured too. It felt wrong to try to touch them, like she was trying to intrude in to an extremely private relationship. When she was certain they were not going to fall in midair, she took off into the night sky, towards the shuttle port in Tara.

* * *

><p>Artemis woke up slowly, blinking his eyes blearily at the bright light. He felt Shirkissa wrapped around his torso from inside his shirt. She did not hide herself from view very often, and when she did, it was very likely for good reason.<p>

He tried to moves his arms to comfort her, but they did not budge. He felt something had wrapped around his wrists and his arms were stuck to the armrests of the chair he was sitting on. It was a small chair, like it was designed for a child. Next to him, Holly was positioned in a similar way, but she was still asleep. The room he was in and everything inside it was proportional to the miniature people.

He heard a strange language being spoken in a male voice.

Artemis looked for the source of the voice and saw a tiny man sitting on another chair, on the other side of the table that was in front of him. His skin was also dark, with auburn hair and brown eyes. But there one thing he had not noticed on the female because she was wearing a helmet and it was that their ears were pointed. The man also had no visible dæmon.

The door opened and a strange creature walked in. It looked like a hairy man's torso fused onto of a horse's body. It was a centaur, like in the bedtime stories his mother used to tell him. The funniest part was that he was wearing a hat that was made of kind of really thin metal.

Shirkissa slithered up his chest and poked her head out. She leveled herself so she could whisper to him in the ear. "That one, the one with four legs, tried to touch me."

Artemis was seized with disgust and anger. It was the worse taboo, to touch another person's dæmon. It did not matter the circumstances; a person's dæmon was sacred to them.

The centaur clopped towards them and Shirkissa responded. She turned into a fierce grizzly bear, a form that his Butler's dæmon took, and roared at the man/stallion. She raised herself to her hind legs threateningly and flexed her claws.

It worked. The centaur whinnied in surprise and skittered to hide behind the pointy eared man, clamping his tin hat to his head. The mini man sighed angrily and shoved the man/stallion out back at Artemis.

The man sneered in the foreign language and the centaur snapped back. He caught the word 'Fowl' and 'Butler'.

Artemis looked at them in confusion. How did they know about Butler?

Then he remembered a theory he overheard in one his father's meetings. Something about universes splitting from each other all the time, so some worlds would not even have humans, while others would have a heavily advanced human civilization. But that meant that there was a group of universes with the same exact inhabitants as his world…

He felt ice in his blood. Millions of versions of him, living separate lives in the different universe. Some older and some younger. Some dead and some alive. Some distinguished and some ordinary.

He was interrupted from his musing when the centaur approached him again, holding something that looked like plungers, except a lot smaller. Shirkissa growled and he hesitated. Then he continued clopping towards them, testing their limits. Shirkissa retreated when he got too close for comfort and the centaur grinned in satisfaction. Artemis wiggled uncomfortably; he did not like this at all.

"Kissa!" he hissed and she turned into a stoat to hide in his clothing. The centaur smiled at his little victory and said something.

With that, the centaur put the plungers on his eyes and he felt his chin rest on his chest as he slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>Foaly programmed the Retimager to cross reference the image of Opal Koboi with the boy's retinas.<p>

"Just in case some of you have forgotten, under two hundred means he hasn't seen anything, two hundred if he's seen a pixie, over two hundred if he's seen her specifically," Foaly said, smirking at Holly and Trouble.

On the wall, the screen that framed Opal's face flashed a two seventy-three in the corner. The centaur paled.

"He knows her." Holly and Trouble exchanged a somber look as the little girl sitting in the chair next to him started to stir.


	6. Questioning the Parallels

Holly struggled fiercely in the chair while Polethim, in his tiger form, circled her in agitation. She had woken up just in time to see the centaur man pull the plunger thingies off of Artemis and she did not like the puffiness around her friend's eyes. He was blinking slowly, a bulge twisting from inside his shirt that she knew was Shirkissa.

The centaur and the man chattered in the weird language again. The horse man was waving his kitchen plungers around passionately to the man when door opened silently and the woman that looked a lot like her walked in. The woman started yelling at the man/stallion while Holly glared at them. She cleared her throat loudly.

"'Scuse me" she said and noted that she had their attention. "If you don't mind, little people, can I ask where I am? And your names would be nice, too."

They glanced at each other as if she could not see them. Polethim growled in agitation.

"You come from a different…universe than this one, right?" the pointy-eared man asked. Holly nodded emphatically, happy that he spoke English.

"I guess introductions and explinations are required," he said. Holly rolled her eyes. _Thank the Authority, some answers!_

"We are members of the People, a race of magical creatures that live under the Earth. Humans, which we call Mud Men, call us fairies." She ogled. They were _under_ the Earth!

"I am Commander Trouble Kelp," he said. The name was a surprise to her; one of the kids she sometimes played with down at the harbor was named Trouble Kelp. His father was on the police force with her dad and he had a wimpy brother named Grub. She realized that the Trub she knew and the mini commander right in front of her looked almost the same, except for the obvious difference in age and height.

"This is our techie, Foaly," the man continued, throwing his thumb back at the horse-man. Artemis started. A man that specialized in atomcraft visited his father one time to ask for support and funding to start a project. His name was Mr. Foaly and his dæmon was, ironically, a mare.

"And this is Captain Holly Short," the Commander finished, peering at them carefully. They seemed to be gauging their reaction at the name.

Holly mouth was hanging open while she gawked at the woman. Artemis's brow furrowed, as if he was trying to find similarities in the Captain's face. There was a somewhat awkward silence that followed.

"So…y-you're me in…this world?" ten-year-old Holly said as she studied at the woman.

"I guess so," the pointy-eared woman replied slowly.

"The theory of the multiverse supports it," the centaur Foaly put in.

"Where is _my_ parallel?" Artemis inquired.

"Alright, that's enough," huffed Commander Kelp, totally disregarding the boy's question. "We're going to ask you and your friend some questions."

She narrowed her eyes. "'Bout what?"

"Do you know a woman named Koboi?"

Holly thought about it. The name was awfully familiar… "Oh! Like Crazy Lady Koboi!"

"Umm…," the pointy-eared people glanced at each other. The Commander looked skeptical. "Yeah, tell us about her."

"She's this lady that lives down the street from Mr. Sool's house and she wants to be a witch queen, 'cept you can only be one if your mom was one. Even though her mom wasn't, she took all these tree branches of all type of trees, but everyone knows witches only use cloud-pines. Anyway, she went up to Lord Fowl-"

"Lord Fowl?" Captain Short interrupted.

"My father," Artemis explained, taking over. "She asked him if she could jump of our castle's battlements to see if she could take to the air. My mother wasn't keen on having a bloody pile of mash on the grounds, so they sent her away and recommended she see a doctor. She didn't take their advice, though."

The fairies looked more confused than ever.

"Yeah, but have you ever seen a Koboi that's about, as short as us, maybe a little shorter?" the Commander asked hesitantly.

"Umm, no. I don't think I've ever seen a person as short as you guys over six years old." Holly answered. "Can we get off these chairs, now?"

"No. What is your relationship to the boy?" Commander Kelp asked, jabbing a finger at Artemis.

"The 'boy' has a name!" he said indignantly. Once again, the fairies pretended to not hear him.

Holly said, "He's my best friend. What's it to you. Now can we get up?" In response, the Commander looked disbelieving while the Captain and the centaur looked pensive.

"Wait, one more question. What's that animal you got with you?" Foaly demanded.

"Animal? What animal? You mean Pol? He's my dæmon!" Holly said while catching the eye of Polethim. He was sitting passively next to her chair. "Where are yours anyway?"

"We don't have 'dæmons' here," the Commander said as they continued to stare. She started to feel a little self-conscious, so Polethim turned into a cardinal to sit on her shoulder. They stared even harder.

"I see," Artemis said, his voice thoughtful. Shirkissa had turned into a horned owl, the sure sign of an incoming lecture. Holly tried to get comfortable in the chair, preparing for a nap.

"In our world, people believe that your dæmon is the physical representation of your soul. They are your partners through your entire life. At childhood they can assume any animal shape they please and at adolescence, they take a permanent form. But in this world, there are two sentient species occupying it, humans and fairies. Somehow, you did not develop dæmons outside your body. They exist inside of you. But you stature is so small, you must have some other trait that gives you an advantage over humans." He frowned. "Do the People have magic?"

Commander Kelp was startled. "How did you know?"

"Because it was an educated guess based on my knowledge of evolution. And the Captain used some on us prior to this."

"Oh, well," he mumbled, trying to cover up his slip. Holly shook her shackles loudly.

"Can we get out know? I'm hungry," she whined childishly.

"Fine, we'll release you to your own world, after we erase your memories of this meeting." Foaly said, starting to clop out of the room.

"Hold on! You can't erase our memories! And we do not want to return to our world!" Artemis shouted, straining against the manacles.

"Why?" Captain Short asked, her face curious.

"Because, I'm running away from my father right now. And Holly wants an adventure. We didn't jump into the window on accident, you know. I really do not want to return, at least not at the age I am now. Beside, have you ever erased someone's mind before and it caused more harm than good?" he said, leaning forward and widening his blue eyes. Shirkissa turned into a Siberian husky puppy in his lap and matched his expression.

The Captain chewed on her lip. She spoke to the other two fairies in the unknown language. The man seemed to be livid, while the centaur looked unsure. She argued a little bit more and Commander Kelp seemed to give in. He sighed, and then left. Then Captain didn't look too thrilled either, but she was not as distressed as she was a couple moments ago.

"Alright, you guys, we'll let you stay here with your memories. As long as you swear _never to tell anyone the People exist_." Captain Short let a little magic leak in as she stared into their eyes.

"Yes, Ms. Short," the children answer in perfect unison.

"I'm in charge of you guys while you stay here. After this, we'll let you live on the surface with one of my human friends until you grow up, okay?"

"Yes, Ms. Short."

The Captain put in the code on their handcuffs to release them from the chair. They stood up and stretched and followed her out of the interrogation room. Holly hung back with Artemis to speak with him.

"How'd you know to what to say to her about memories?" She whispered to him.

"A shot in the dark," he murmured back.

* * *

><p>Lord Fowl glowered as he stamped up the steps of his home. His son had disappeared off the face of the earth.<p>

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard his wife crying. But he took no notice of her when he marched straight to his office. The Butlers followed him obediently.

There, he sat down heavily in his leather chair. He steepled his fingers and glared into the empty space straight ahead. The cobra dæmon's eyes were unblinking.

_No heirs, nobody to take up the responsibility if something went wrong, the family reputation was ruined, his business contacts were turning against him, his wife was in no condition to rule a criminal empire, she was grieving too much, the boy appreciated nothing in his life, the girl was also gone…_

He stood up suddenly, roaring his frustration at everything. He swept all the official papers, celestial geographic maps, and personal items off the oak desk in one sweep of his arm. He stood there breathing heavily for a moment before addressing the Butlers.

"Find him. Use every resource available. Make sure he is returned home safely." Uncle and nephew bowed their heads as they left the study.

Lord Fowl continued to stand there, letting his ice blue eyes drift over the scattered papers. He thought about the mess he would have to organize later when one particular paper caught his eye.

It was an official notice from the Church, dated a couple years back. He remembered the meeting they had when the agents came over. They were discussing a window and how they wanted his permission to send their theologians in there…

A window. In the middle of the forest. It was at night when they were in the forest and they could have missed it in the poor lighting. And such a window would surely not be easy to find. When you were desperate to run away, what was better than a mysterious portal that very few people knew about? One that led to an uncharted land?

Lord Fowl strode quickly out his office, almost jogging, when he tried to catch up to the Butlers before they left the estate.

* * *

><p>Mr. Short cradled his head in anguish as he sat on the bed he shared with his wife. Mr. Diggums was in the house, cleaning out what ever measly amount of food they had left. Mr. Short honestly didn't care; he just wanted her little girl back.<p>

"Heerr," Mr. Diggums came out with his mouth full of salted fish and saltine crackers. Mr. Short cringed at the amount of water he would need to wash it down. "Harv ya eva thut dat maybe she rawn arway?"

"No," he answered immediately, his head shooting up to glare at Mulch. "Holly's not that type of girl. She doesn't just run away. She was happy this evening. Nothing was bothering her. And dear God, chew your food."

Mr. Diggums swallowed the impossible amount of food while his Maka rested contently in the crook of his arm. "Maybe something happened in the forest to make her run away. Like, I dunno, a friend? Kids do anything for their friends."

Right when he said the word 'friends', it clicked in Mr. Short's mind. She did have a friend, one that was familiar with the forest.

"It's Fowl's kid! I know it," he exclaimed as his dæmon started barking. "I never liked that kid. He looks too much like his dad. I wonder how they even met in the first place."

"Man, they're kids. They work in mysterious ways."

Mrs. Short put in. "Weren't you looking for some kind of window?"

"Yeah," they answered.

"Well, Holly likes an adventure," Mrs. Short said as she sat up, biting her lip. "What happens if they both found the window somehow and they decided to have a little fun?"

Mr. Short was horrified. "But…they don't know what's even in there! _We _don't even know!"

She glared at her husband. "In case you haven't noticed in the past ten years, Holly dives head first in to a lot of things. By a lot, I mean by everything. She always manages to get herself out of it. Don't worry; it's just like all the other times."

She saw her husband relax as he thought about all the other times his daughter narrowly escaped death, imprisonment, excommunication, and the like. Often with some sort of companion besides Polethim. Mulch was right; kids do work in mysterious ways.

"I'm going to search for the window anyways. Just in case." With that, he stood up, lit a naphtha lamp and headed towards the forest. Mr. Diggums trailed him, carrying an armful of food.

Mrs. Short frowned and laid back on her bed and stared at the early morning sky. Sure, their daughter was a tough nut and even as a toddler she escaped many impossible things. But she felt a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she did not voice to her husband.

Her dolphin dæmon jumped up to the dock onto his belly, his black eye studying her.

"A thought troubling you?" he murmured.

"I don't know," she said, resting a hand onto his gray rubbery head. "I just feel like this adventure is very different from all the others. Like it would be her last."


	7. Embrace the Culture

Captain Holly Short had decided to take them out to eat before the set them on the Mud Boy.

Of course, she had not called Artemis yet. But she assumed he would take the children. It wasn't hard to look after two kids if you had that kind of money, right?

She had chosen to take them to eat at Spud's Spud Emporium just for convenience's sake. They were kids; they could eat anything. And they could pass as extremely tall pixies inside restaurant. From a distance.

So that's how she ended up sitting in a booth across from the human girl that was devouring everything in sight, mystery meat, papery salad and all. The boy was also eating, but not as fast. A cardinal and a blue jay pecked the crumbs off the table top.

The fairies that were already in the restaurant were staring at the trio, pointing and whispering. The Captain slouched a little in her seat.

"Hey, you guys want to take it easy on the food? You know, so you don't_ choke to death_?" she whispered to them while drinking from a nettle shake she bought from an outside vendor.

"Nurmfrankoo," the girl responded while the boy just shook his head.

She exhaled, flapping her lips as she watched the show. In her peripheral vision, she saw one particular elf lady approach their table with a delighted smile. Older Holly did not like that look.

"Oh, are these real birds? How did you manage to get them down here! I haven't seen these critters in so long!" she gushed in Gnommish, looking at the kids' dæmons. She reached out a hand to touch the blue jay. Big mistake, it turns out.

The dæmon the boy called Shirkissa flapped her wings and squawked wildly at the elf's intrusion. She turned into a snake and wrapped herself around her human's neck. The boy had stopped eating and dropped his fork onto his plate. It clanged very loudly.

The restaurant had fallen silent when they started watching the event unfold. Captain Holly felt nervous for the lady; what would a kid that was the counterpart of the infamous Artemis Fowl do to her?

He looked up slowly, one hand caressing the snake around his neck while the other was clenched in a tight fist on the table top. His blue eyes seemed to bore into her in rage, even though the rest of his face was expressionless.

"What do you think you are doing?" he spoke quietly, dangerously.

_Tread carefully, lady._ She thought, her hand straying to her hip just in case something went wrong. _Better yet, run away as fast as you can._

"I…um…wanted to s-see that delightful-ful…bird of yours…but…it…never m-mind. I'm s-s-sorry…not what I thought, ob-obviously," she stammered in English as she backed away slowly. When she felt like she was at a far enough distance, she turned around and belted out of the eatery.

The patrons stared after her abrupt exit, then back at the children. The boy had went back to eating as if nothing had happened, the blue jay back on the table, pecking. The girl had paused from her meal for a little to glance at the lady, but other than that, she did not react to the occurrence. The silence was deafening to the Captain.

"What just happened?" she whispered to the little girl.

The girl swallowed before she answered. "You're not supposed to touch another person's dæmon. It's wrong. Actually, it's taboo in our world." She shrugged. "And it's real disrespectful."

The Captain studied the boy. He kept on eating, the blue jay pecking on the crumbs. He looked so much like the Artemis she knew that it was kind of creepy.

"Who is this 'human friend' you spoke of earlier?" The boy asked abruptly and for a crazy moment, she thought he had read her mind. The entire restaurant seemed to be listening into their little conversation.

"He's one of the few humans that know about the People. I guess you can say we're good friends." Captain Short pursed her lips, wondering if she should say it._ Yeah, why not._ "He would be your parallel in this world. You have the same name as him."

The boy seemed to contemplate that piece of information for a long time. The girl seemed excited.

"Which reminds me. I have to call and tell him you guys are staying there." The Captain took out her communicator and pressed the button to contact Artemis.

"Why not surprise him?" the girl asked, bouncing in her seat. She noticed that all the food was gone. She had spent almost two grams of gold on that food!

"I don't know about the customs in your world, but showing up unannounced with news that you have two children to take care of from now on can be perceived as rude."

Captain Short stood up and walked out of Spud's Spud Emporium, followed by the two children. The fairies started talking to each other as soon as they got up. She overheard some of the comments they whispered.

"That Fowl kid–"

"Looks exactly like her–"

"Younger than I thought–"

"Girly captain–"

They were cut off when she closed the door behind them. She headed down the street back to LEP Headquarters while the two humans examined everything they saw.

On the third ring, Artemis picked up. "Hello, Holly. To whom do I owe this pleasure of being woken up at three in the morning?"

She sighed. "So formal, so early."

"I have to keep up the professional persona somehow." She could practically hear the smirk through the communicator.

"Well, Artemis, I've actually called you to ask something," she said, suddenly nervous. _What happens if he says no?_

"Umm, you think you can…take-care-of-two-kids-until-they-grow-up?" She ran her words together, but she was sure he would still be able understand.

There was an awkward pause over the communicator until he said, hesitantly, "What kind of kids and why?"

The Captain felt a little relieved. At least it wasn't an absolute _no_. "You remember what I told you a couple weeks ago? About the forest near your house?"

"Yes, the portal and the multiverse theory."

"Yeah, well, instead of the regular weird stuff, two kids popped out this time. And they…look a lot like us."

Another pause. "'Us' as in fairies or 'us' as in you and me?"

"'Us' as in you and me. They even have the same names as us."

A sigh sounded through. "I suppose it would be our parallels that would be the ones to go through. Are you sure there are no other alternatives?"

"They can't stay in Haven or out in some random human city, that's for sure." A thought occurred to her. "The boy seems to be as smart as you, so I'm bet you won't have to take care of them for long. They're tough ones. They just need to hide out in our world for a while, and then they'll go back. I just couldn't think of anyone else to turn to, and they're in a situation. Something about running away."

"Alright, bring them up here. I'm afraid I will have to keep them hidden from the twins and my parents, though," he said thoughtfully. "Wait, are they even human?"

"Yes, but they still…need to be kept out of sight…I'll explain and you can see for yourself when we get up there."

"Hmm, then perhaps one of the private properties…"

"Yeah, yeah whatever works, Mud Boy. Thanks. See you in about a couple hours." She hung up and looked for the children.

She saw both of them kneeling around something in the alley. The birds were replaced with a panther and a tiger that were crouching next to them, inching forward with their humans.

The Captain approached cautiously, her hand drifting to her Neutrino again. "Hey guys? What're you looking at there?"

She saw the girl poke at something with her finger, and then heard an exclamation of "D'arvit!"

The girl screamed, "Catch it, Arty!" while a green blob sprung up into the air.

The boy lunged for it in a not-so-graceful way, but caught the swear toad nonetheless. It continued to cuss out the children as it struggled vainly in their hands. The girl poked it relentlessly until it bit her finger. Younger Holly spouted some profanity of her own as her digit began to swell. Her dæmon began howling, and anyone with the Gift of Tongues understood that it was a string of curses in the Tiger.

"Oh my gods, are you serious," the Captain grumbled as she slapped the swear toad out of Younger Artemis's hands. She grabbed enlarged finger and gave it some blue sparks. When it shrank back to its normal size, she marched back to street, towing the children with her.

They say kids can brighten up any day with anybody. Captain Short did not think that rule pertained to these particular kids. They touched everything that didn't exist in their world, which was practically everything in sight, and the boy would ask her detailed questions about it. The girl would want to examine everything and everyone personally and would drag the protesting boy by his arm everywhere she went. Older Holly never felt more embarrassed in her life when she had to tug the younger version of herself from the first sprite she saw.

"He _flies_!" the human girl said in delight. Her dæmon turned into a falcon to glide next to the unfortunate fairy.

"Holly, leave the man alone," the boy said crossly. All he received was a whack to the side of head.

"Hey missy, keep your giant kids on a leash!" the sprite yelled at the Captain as he tried to out-maneuver the persistent girl and her crazy bird.

"Ms. Short, is he a mutant?" she asked before the sprite was even out of earshot. Older Holly apologized profusely to the irate fairy. He still continued to throw them dirty looks as he flapped away.

"Judging by his anatomy, the People evolved on the surface. Is that correct, Captain Short?" the boy asked.

"Uh, yeah that's right."

"So why do you need to live underneath the Earth?"

"Because thousands of years ago, there was a war between the fairies and humans. The fairies decided to retreat instead of fighting."

"Why not live in harmony? Why was there a war in the first place?"

"I don't know about the humans you know, but in this world, they're volatile and not even their own species is safe from each other. Most aren't the compromising, share-and-help type of people. They kill things for fun and decoration without a second thought. They've ruined the surface with their pollutants and wastes and they won't stop until it turns into radioactive slop." She stopped her ranting, suddenly aware she just went on a tirade about the child's species. "No offense to you guys, of course."

"None taken," he replied smoothly. "But I've seen a little bit of technology your police force has at their disposal. I bet your weapons are even more powerful. You can probably easily take down any current opposition from above."

"Yeah we can," the Captain admitted. "But we just aren't that type of people. We don't conquer and destroy. It's just not the People's style."

"But you love the surface, do you not?"

"Yeah, I do." She unconsciously tilted her face upward, but all she saw was the stalactites and sun strips.

"Total angst-fest," the little girl decided to put in. Then she ran off to ask a particularly hairy dwarf why his beard was wiggling, dragging her complaining friend by the hand behind her. Holly heaved a sigh, jogging to catch up with them before the dwarf decided to eat them. The whole cycle began again.

That was pretty much the scene until they finally reached the Headquarters.


	8. Developing Bigger Problems

Captain Holly Short tried not to roll her eyes at the children in the back of the shuttle.

They were squirming in their harnesses, trying to engage in what looked like a fist fight with each other. Their dæmons were circling each other in their raccoon and lynx forms, occasionally taking swipes at each other. The kids themselves were throwing cheesy fighting phrases at each other while giggling in between.

"I will destroy you!"

"Is that all you got?"

"I have more than enough power in my pinky toe to beat you!"

"Nobody's ever beaten _me _before!"

"I eat people like you for breakfast!"

The Captain was resisting the urge to slam her face repeatedly onto the console when she was suddenly struck by an idea. She would play the trick played on Artemis years ago. She pulled up the shuttle to gently climb up into the morning sky, making sure they did not notice. They were too caught up in the fake fight and her flying was too smooth. Holly grinned to herself.

When she was well above the optimal height for the dive, she turned the shuttle nose down to the earth. She looked back to see the children's expressions, remembering Artemis's own green face.

Instead of the nausea Captain Short was looking for, the children's expressions were of delight. Their hands were extended into the air as if they were sitting in a rollercoaster instead of a fairy ship plunging straight down to the ground. Their dæmons had turned into lemurs to cling onto their humans' torsos. Younger Holly was screaming her elation and Younger Artemis threw back his head to laugh in joy.

"Again, Ms. Holly!" the little girl called.

It was far from the reaction that the Captain was looking for, but she could not help but laugh with them. It was like they exuded an aura of happiness. Even the lemurs looked happy. It was kind of odd to see someone that looked like the Artemis she knew and act so childishly, but she liked it. Grinning, she turned her head back to piloting.

The looming wall of Fowl Manor suddenly appeared in front of her.

She steered the shuttle hard to avoid crashing into her friend's house. The sharp turn caused all of them to get jerked harshly in their harnesses, which scored her more points with the kids. More cheering erupted from the back of the ship.

"Short, what kind of stunt are you trying to pull?" Commander Kelp's voice said through the shuttle intercom.

"Holly that could have gotten you killed!" said Foaly's voice through her helmet.

She groaned. Was it International Cliché Day and she missed the announcement?

"Sorry, sir, it won't happen again," the Captain mumbled her own expected line as she landed the shuttle onto the Fowl driveway.

* * *

><p>Artemis cradled the raccoon Shirkissa as he stepped out of the fairy ship onto what looked like a downgraded version of his own home.<p>

"Hey, it doesn't look as creepy as before!" Holly exclaimed, running across the gravel, Polethim in his golden retriever form, loped next to her. His tongue lolled out to one side as she did a cartwheel on the pebbles.

Artemis thought it looked very vulnerable without its extra stone walls, mounted cannons, and patrolling guards. Even the enormous banners that proclaimed it to be the home of the Fowls were missing. It looked like a simple rich-than-normal house, not the intimidating, highborn castle that he grew up in.

He decided he liked the manor better. A lot better.

"Hey, you know we're supposed to keep out of sight. Can you guys get any louder?" a heat haze hissed at them.

"Yeah a lot more," Holly responded, twirling what looked like an invisibility blanket behind her. Polethim was about to turn into a howler monkey to demonstrate, but Shirkissa turned into a panther to pounce on him before he started…well, howling.

"Holly, I think that was a rhetorical question, so best we put the magical cloak on and shut it, alright?" Artemis said as he put her in a headlock and draped the camfoil over them. Holly, thinking that he was playing around, reversed the headlock and the two friends started wrestling in a matter of seconds. Artemis propelled her into the bushes bordering the manor just in case. Polethim had turned into a tiger and grappled with Shirkissa right on the gravel road.

Right then, fourteen-year-old Artemis Fowl the Second decided to step out of his house before his parents saw him sneaking out and questioned the morality of his actions again. As always, Butler stood protectively right behind him. He expected to see some pitiful-looking orphan version of himself that convinced a battle-hardened elf to help them. All he saw was Holly and two big jungle cats fighting on his driveway.

"They're not the kids, are they?" he asked, frowning at the panther and the tiger digging furrows in the gravel.

"Wait, what? Oh, Holy Frond," The Captain turned around and groaned when she saw the shrubs by the wall shaking and laughter emitting from them.

She flew over to the plants, picked up the abandoned camfoil and wrenched up the kids by their shirts. They still tried to slap each other in mid air until they noticed they had an audience.

The Captain released them from her hovering grip. Holly and Artemis landed, never taking their eyes of the newcomers. The smaller one was really pale, the sign of a nobleman. He wore stiff, black clothing that was void of any kind of social status or family identification and a colored strip of cloth tied around his neck. He looked too old to be their age, but too young to be an adult. He had the same hair and face as Artemis, but his eye coloring was exactly like the Captain's, except reversed. As usual with the people in this universe, he had no visible dæmon.

Artemis noticed the bigger one was Butler-sized. He looked exactly the same as the Butler his father would always command to follow him everywhere he went. But this one looked friendlier and significantly older. He also had no dæmon.

Polethim and Shirkissa turned into a bright red dragonfly and a metallic blue wasp to rest on their humans' shoulders.

"He looks like your dad, Arty," Holly shielded her mouth from the view of the scary-looking teenager, but she still spoke too loudly.

"Ahem," coughed Captain Short, deciding to break the increasingly awkward atmosphere. There was just too many in one day. "To answer your question from earlier; this is your parallel, Artemis. The younger one, I meant."

Younger Artemis studied his counterpart critically. "Holly was right," Shirkissa whispered from his shoulder as she fluttered her wings. "He looks more like your father than you. More…harsh."

Older Artemis decided to command the conversation. "I believe all of you should get into the house before my parents or the twins see you. Butler will drive you to a more secluded property later on when you adjust."

The children shared a look. Just by how he spoke, they could already tell he was not a fun type of person. Following the Captain, they walked to what looked like a metal box with glass windows on wheels. Holly rapped the side door with her knuckles, earning nasty looks from the huge man.

"Looks like a mini zeppelin on the ground. There's even anabaric lights in there! So how does this thing work?" She rattled off the questions, not really expecting answers.

The teenager answered anyway. "That is not a mini zeppelin; it is called an automobile, also known as a car. I assume 'anabaric' means electric in your world? And it works by using an internal combustion engine, powered by gas." He said it in a tone as if he thought they were idiots.

Holly fell silent as Polethim snuck into her pocket. The children filed into the car after the Captain in the backseat as the huge man and the teenager sat in front.

As the car rumbled into life, Captain Short almost expected the kids to start acting like they were on an amusement park ride like they had on the shuttle. Instead, they were whispering quietly to each other with their dæmons tucked out of sight.

The car drive was uncomfortable while everyone looked out a window. Older Artemis decided to break the silence.

"So what are those shape-changing animals you have with you?" he tried to ask conversationally, but it came out sounding like demanding. Captain Short sighed; he never had the best social skills, let alone know how to talk to children.

"They're called dæmons and they represent our souls," the boy deadpanned. "In this world, your dæmons seem to exist inside your body. They only change shape before you hit puberty. After that, they assume a shape that depends on your personality."

Another awkward silence filled the air as Other Butler drove on. The Captain coughed self-consciously.

The Bentley finally stopped in front of one of the various Fowl properties. It was a one-story, but luxurious, house that overlooked the Irish Sea. It was situated on a gently sloping hill that was a little steeper on one side. The grayish-blue waves crashed into the cliff wall below.

The humans and one fairy filed out, stepping onto the emerald grass. They walked up the paved driveway and into the house.

Inside, there was the most basic furniture. The rest of the space was occupied by boxes. Holly was astonished by the similarities to her own home. Both felt comfortable and safe and it was near the ocean, although one was vastly grander than the other.

She suddenly felt a pang for her parents. _What were they doing? What were they thinking about? _She glanced over to her friend. _Nobody would worry for him. They would just be mad. _

He felt her gaze and turned around. Sensing her insecurity, Artemis offered her a tiny smile. She grinned back, and took his hand when the followed the older people up the driveway.

Captain Short noticed the exchange as she trialed behind the group and thought it was a little cute. She was still amazed that they were really close friends. She wondered if it was like that in the other worlds, also. Millions of different Artemis and Holly couples…that was just too weird.

Other Butler was alert as he proceeded with his bodyguard duties of checking the house for anything that can be hazardous to his principle's health. Older Artemis turned to address the others.

"You will be staying here. It's secluded, but not so that you would be completely isolated. Dublin is nearby. As for adult supervision…I assume you can care for yourselves? No one will be able to care for you. I will send supplies soon, though the house is already stocked with food and such. This house is not used very often, if at all, so there would be almost no risk of being discovered. How long are you planning to stay in this world?"

"Approximately eight years," Younger Artemis responded in the same business-like tone, his dæmon becoming a horned owl. Older Artemis raised an eyebrow at the shape-shifting animal, and then at the Captain. She shrugged back. How was she supposed to know what their plans were?

"Very well. That may be a long time, but if Holly thinks that you are trustworthy, then I believe her judgment." With that, he turned away and started discussing something with Captain Short and Other Butler.

For the entire time, Holly wasn't even listening. She had disappeared into the boxes without their other's noticing until she grabbed the back of her friend's coat and yanked him.

"_What_?" he snapped at her. "Holly, this is very important!"

"I'm sure. But I'm bored. At my house, I used to slide down the sand in these boxes, and it was really fun! You wanna try after the grown-ups are done talking?" she said, as she prodded a tall box with the words 'water heater' printed on it with big black letters.

"Yeah, whatever. But just listen to them now; we'll be living by ourselves for years, so it would be smart to learn everything about this world while we can."

"Fine," she pouted, folding her arms over her chest as she tried to be more attentive. Which, of course, it was unsuccessful.

When Artemis and the other people started talking again, Polethim whispered into her ear, "Let's go outside!" She could not resist that offer and crept out through a back door that she saw earlier.

Once she was out in fresh air and the early morning sun, she started exploring the grounds. The steep side of the hill would be a perfect place to slide their boxes. She could see that there was a single paved road that led up to here, winding across the green pastures like a gray ribbon. To the west, she can faintly forest, probably the forest they came out of, on the horizon. To the south, she could see tiny buildings with little lights shining out from them. Extending from the north and south was the shore to the sea, rocky in some places and sandy in others.

She sat down on the hill and stretched, smiling at the sea, a place she was familiar with. This was her element. Polethim turned into a falcon overhead, watchful and enjoy the wind currents at the same time. Holly was gazing at the beach, just looking at the rocks, when she noticed something peculiar. There was one area of boulders where the waves crashed. All the rocks looked normal, except for one area where it looked recently disturbed. Like some decided to blow it up.

There was also a strange square of red, right where two boulders met, near the blown up spot. Where there would be a jagged line separating them, there was instead an uninterrupted patch of dark, muddy red, which reminded Holly of dried blood.

_It was another window._

The thought floated easily, almost casually, in and out of her mind and she realized that it was true. It was truly another window, but she was sure that it was not one that led to her world. For a moment, she stared at it, dumbfounded. Then she exploded.

"Arty! _Arty!" _Holly screamed as she sprinted back to the house, flailing her arms as Polethim flapped frantically beside to her.

The back door opened with a bang as she shouldered it out of the way. The two seasoned soldiers drew their guns immediately and aimed it right in the middle of her chest, their trigger fingers almost squeezing. But she disregarded it and her momentum allowed her to tackle Artemis straight in the back. Unfortunately, it was the wrong Artemis.

The teenager toppled over as the little girl slammed into his back. Butler pulled him up immediately and checked for any broken bones, silently berating himself for allowing him to get hit in the first place.But, honestly, the girl had been faster and more unpredictable than any bullet. Captain Short groaned at the false alarm. Or what she thought was a false alarm.

Younger Holly scrambled up and punched the correct Artemis in the shoulder to catch his attention. Polethim nipped Shirkissa's wing.

"Not necessary!" he protested, clutching his arm as the owl shrieked. She disregarded that also.

"There's a window! Another window! Down at the shore! Not to our world!" she yelled as Polethim cried shrilly.

"_What?_ Calm down, Holly!"

She took a deep breath as Polethim turned into a lynx to rest in her arms. Older Artemis watched her dæmon change curiously, like a scientist assessing an experiment.

"I was looking some rocks, you know, just looking, then I saw _it_. It just appeared, and I'm sure that it's not to our world! I just _know it_!" She grabbed on to her friend's sleeve, tugging him towards the back door.

The group followed the running girl and the dragged boy towards the hill. She looked over at the area where she saw the patch of red. There was the same blown out rocks, but nothing appeared to be there. She pointed at the area anyway.

"There, I saw it right there!" she exclaimed, searching for the spot where she sat on the ground. She saw a little flattened area of grass and stood right on top of it. When it still did not appear, she crouched down as if she were going to sit. She looked back and saw the reddish brown square.

"Here, Arty! Sit right here and look!"

He lowered himself down where she indicated and looked at the pile of boulders. For a moment, there were just the boulders, and then there was the out-of-place coloring. He moved slightly to the left and the right. It disappeared to the most infinitesimal movement. He was amazed that she managed to see it from the hill. It was pure luck that she sat down on the exact patch of grass that allowed her full view of the window. "I see it."

"I told you. Let's go look at the other world!" Holly glanced back at the others. Strangely, the Older Artemis and the Captain looked a little paler than usual.

The Captain said to Older Artemis, "That's where the kraken is, right?"

"Yes," he answered, his eyes a little glazed over.

"And the smashed out part is where you crashed the plane, right?"

"Yes."

"Oh crap," Captain Short muttered.

They stared at the older people. They looked really worried.

"What's wrong?" Holly asked, giving the window a fleeting look before she turned back at the grown-ups.

Older Holly paused before telling the children. "Remember the Opal Koboi I asked you about? The dangerous one that came from this world, not the crazy old lady."

"Yep," they replied. Older Artemis looked at her in confusion, but she gave him a look that said 'tell you later' and continued.

"Well, that place was the last time we saw her in person. After that, nobody ever saw here again except for occasional brief sightings and magical signatures that appeared in odd places. And I'm pretty sure that window is where she escaped to."


	9. Parental Units

Lord Artemis the First sat at the dingy bar, sipping his whiskey.

His eyes scanned the crowd at the pub. It was dark and smelled of piss, bile and stale liquor. It was almost shameful that he was there, but he was incognito.

He felt his dæmon move around his torso from inside the dark trench coat that he traded for his nobleman's coat. The people in this world had no external dæmons, so they were frightened when he walked into the city with a king cobra that spoke wrapped around his neck. He felt uncomfortable that he could not communicate with her, but it was a small sacrifice for information.

"So," he started, making small talk with the bartender. He grimaced inwardly; how embarrassing would it be if he was caught now. "Do you happen to know any places of interest here?"

"Ah, a tourist?" the bartender answered as he wiped his glasses. Lord Fowl nodded; he had been masking his accent to avoid any possible ways that people could identify him.

"Well, what're you interested in? There're many places in Ireland for everyone."

"Hmm, perhaps…" he was struck with a sudden idea. "Family genealogy. I believe I am from an old family, called the…Fowls."

"Ah, the Fowls. They say they're a bunch of no good thieves, or _businessmen_ as they call themselves, but that's never been proven. I know someone that got scammed by them but couldn't prove it. That's a family with an army of lawyers. Not sure if you want to be associated with them," the bartender said gruffly.

"Well, I would like to know anyway," the lord pushed. _I would have to eliminate him after this. I have revealed too much. _

"If you _really_ do, they live in the outskirts of the city, just west of here." Lord Fowl nodded; then in this world, some of the old structures corresponded to the structures in his world. He knew where to start his search now.

He downed the last of the golden liquid and set the glass down on the bar. The liquor here was nothing compared to the Tokay in his cellar, but it would have to do. He set one gold coin onto the bar and stood up to leave.

The bartender walked over to retrieve the glass and saw the coin. He picked it up and inspected it in confusion.

"Excuse me, sir. We don't use…fake gold coins. Rippin' me off won't help pay the drink," he asked, glaring at the strange man in the trench coat while rapping the coin on the table.

Lord Fowl intentionally frowned disdainfully at the bartender, trying to provoke him. "You should accept my form of payment. It is much more valuable your peasantry form of money." And he left the bar, leaving the angered man.

The bartender was not a slight man. He was actually heavily built, and he took pride in his strength. He did not take orders from others, so he decided to leave his post and trail the man. _Peasantry? What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'll beat him until the money starts flowing out of his ass!_ He jeered silently at him. He thought that the man had no idea that he was following him.

How very wrong he was.

The man walked into a dark alley right beside the pub. There, he suddenly stopped, partially hidden in the shadows.

_The fuck is he doing?_ The bartender peered into the darkness, trying to completely make out the man. He decided to 'make himself known'.

"Hey, man! You still owe me money for the drink. I told you, I only accept real money!" he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.

The man turned around. Those eyes pierced the man and he felt his blood turn into ice and the hairs of his neck to stand. This was it a man not to be trifled with. But the bartender had pride and he stood his ground.

The man in the trench coat grimaced and spoke in a cold voice, "Major, take care of the commoner."

The bartender was completely unaware of the enormous man that dwarfed him until he was right next to him. A bear of equal size stood on its hind legs beside the man. A huge, gloved hand covered his mouth, reducing his shouting into muffled grunts. The other one rested on the side of his head firmly. With a swift and practiced move, the Major twisted his hands and snapped the man's neck. Overwhelming fear ran unrestrained through the bartender's mind for one second, and then he thought no more.

Lord Fowl sneered at the mangled body on the ground. A loose end tied up. "What filth." The Major bent his head in agreement.

He stepped over the dead man as the Major melted back into the shadows.

He had a family to visit.

* * *

><p>Older Artemis felt the edges of the window with his hands before he stepped through to the other world. He was surprised anyone was able to find it. It was well hidden under the overhang of a cliff and it disappeared entirely unless he stood at the correct spot. If he were to just walk here and gaze into the air, he would see nothing, just like the LEP who had come to arrest Opal had done. Butler and the Captain had gone through before him, just to make sure that it was safe. So did the children, which him feel somewhat ridiculous being the last one to enter.<p>

He had heard the window that the children went through was in the middle of the forest, same as it was here. So he assumed this one would lead to a shore of a sea. Instead, they ended up in up in some sort of cave. The dirt floor was the color of brownish red. He walked to the cave entrance, where Butler and the Captain stood.

The sight was astounding. Their cave was elevated, actually, more like carved into the side of a cliff. Below them, fearsome creatures that resembled trolls and mythical monsters walked the earth. There were also several flying creatures, but thankfully, they were in the distance.

There were some plants scattered around the landscape, but they seem to consist solely of thistles, thorns and brambles. The creatures created a wide berth around the stubby bushes. The ground underneath them was also tinged with red and old hardened streams of lava flows extended from the mountain in the distance.

"It's like the picture of Hell they showed at the oratory once," Younger Holly murmured.

From those words, Older Artemis realized that this world must be an inspiration for all the myths and folklore that his world. There were creatures that fitted the description of chimeras, zombies and dragons. Thick clouds that spewed from the distant mountains covered the sun, which reduced its light to a dull orange glow. He realized the Captain that sealed her helmet visor to avoid the volcanic ash.

It would make perfect sense. The occasional monster would travel through the window, and stories would spread like wildfire in the human population. Then 'heroes' will go slay them, forever imprinting their names in history and myth.

"If this is the world Koboi escaped to, I doubt that she would survive very long. The poison in the air would kill a fairy after a while." The helmet turned her voice into monotone.

"Yes, but it seems she has been traveling between the worlds. She could have transported technologies and gained different magics to enable her survival here." Older Artemis scanned the horizon for any clues. There was nothing except blackened mountains.

"I'll alert Foaly to put heavy surveillance on this place. This is a really big problem." She stepped back into the window to get a signal to the operations booth. Older Artemis and Other Butler followed behind her back into their universe.

The children gazed at the land below.

"I'm glad there's no window connecting this world to ours…I hope." Holly said as she watched two furry tusked creatures try to bash each other's head open. Artemis nodded as he contemplated that.

As they walked back to the window, Holly thought she saw a small dot enveloped in blue fly across the sky, but she thought nothing of it.

* * *

><p>Mr. Short collapsed next to his wife in defeat.<p>

He was awake for at least twenty-four hours already. The forest had yielded no results and Mr. Diggums left to find another poor soul to pester.

He sighed as he folded his arms behind his head as he dæmon settled herself down on the dock. He glanced at his sleeping wife next to him and smiled at her peaceful face. _At least I have one thing to thank the Authority for._

He heard knocking at the front door and sat up. He headed to the crowded house, knowing that his shift would start in an hour anyway. Mr. Short navigated through the boxes and opened the door to find a lanky man with a long face that matched his horse dæmon.

"Ah, Mr. Foaly! How're you doing?" Mr. Short extended a hand and shook firmly and briskly.

The visitor was the famed Mr. Foaly, an expert in atomcraft, despite his young age. His intelligence was respected by the higher society, but his friendships rested in the common people, especially those down at the police station. He earned a good keep because the noblemen hired him often to work on their various projects.

"I'm doing good, man. But I got some information for you." Mr. Short waved him into the house to pour him some tea. Mr. Foaly accepted the drink, but declined to go inside. He had to stay outside with his dæmon.

"Alright, this is what I've heard. The Lord of Fowl Castle's gone, along with his bodyguard. So is his kid, the one your daughter plays with," Mr. Foaly said as he warmed his hands around the cup. Mr. Short covered his face with his hand; this was getting more and more complicated.

"Wait, don't get sad yet! I got something that can help you," Mr. Foaly said excitingly. "I've invented an instrument-"

"Big whoop," Mr. Short muttered, glaring at his tea.

"Hey, this can actually help you find Holly! I don't appreciate your unappreciative attitude."

"Fine, fine I'm listening. Tell me about your little toy."

The horse dæmon whinnied indignantly as Mr. Foaly looked hurt. He did not like his cutting edge ordinators and inventions being called 'toys'. "Well, that was uncalled for."

Mr. Short sighed again. "I'm sorry Foaly. I'm just tried and worried, that's all."

"Humph, I guess I can forgive you." Mr. Short rolled his eyes. "So the instrument I invented. It finds and located a substance the Church calls Dust. Why they hate it so much, I have no idea. Some baloney about original sin. But this Dust is remarkable; it exhibits conscious thinking and the like. It flows in and out of the windows, and if you're so sure your daughter went through a window, then we could find it and follow her!"

Mr. Short frowned. "Foaly, are you doing illegal experiments? It'll get you excommunicated."

"Now, that's only if they find out. And I made sure they don't find out. Besides, why would they suspect me? For all they know, I just knock particles together when they commission me."

He waved his hands in defeat. "Alright I'll let you help me find the window. But, only I go in." Mr. Foaly opened his mouth to protest, but Mr. Short gave him a look that shut him up. "The reason is because you can't defend yourself. You're a theologian, not a fighter. If you have nothing better to do, you want to go to the forest right now and give it a sweep? My shift down at the station is going to start soon."

"Sure, I'll give it a swing. I'll tell you my results as soon as I can."

"Thanks, Foaly. See you later."

Mr. Foaly set the tea cup down and the two men said their farewells. Mr. Short kissed his wife good-bye and headed towards the police station, where he would arrest hoodlums for stealing and gyptians for anchoring their boats where they shouldn't. _Leave it to Holly to turn a relatively simple life to a cross-universe chase._


End file.
